The two heavy hitters kept up the success last night, trading kills like two heavyweight fighters trading blows. Houston finished with 25, Day with 16.

But it was the supporting cast behind Houston that made the difference in the nonconference volleyball match. Aneli Cubi-Otineru had 18 kills and Juliana Sanders 12, and Tara Hittle and Jayme Lee anchored a defense that kicked in during a critical stretch of Game 3 as the Rainbow Wahine turned back the Lions 27-30, 30-28, 30-24, 30-17.

It was the fourth consecutive win for the No. 11 Wahine (25-5), who host the Lions (16-12) tonight in the final regular-season home matches for seniors Kari Gregory, Raeceen Woolford, Caroline Blood and Sanders.

The best present the Hawaii underclassmen can give their four seniors tonight is a win in their final regular-season home volleyball match.

The Rainbow Wahine "youngsters" got the party started a day early when downing Loyola Marymount last night, 27-30, 30-28, 30-24, 30-17 in 2 hours, 16 minutes. Junior hitter Jamie Houston put down a match-high 25 kills and sophomore hitter Aneli Cubi-Otineru added 18 as Hawaii improved to 25-5 with its fourth straight victory.

The teams meet again at 7 tonight, a rematch that is expected to be equally competitive.

"We want to leave (the seniors) with a win," said Cubi-Otineru, who added 13 digs. "They deserve it.

"Tonight I thought our bench people -- Dani (Mafua), Kari (Gregory) and Jayme -- contributed a lot. Our defense started out slow, but we know we had to pull it together, just needed to communicate more."

Things were lost in translation early for Hawaii, which had particular trouble with LMU's Day early. Day hit .429 in leading the Lions to a win in Game 1; her sixth kill gave the Lions game point a 29-25. One sideout later, her seventh finished it.

The momentum changed sides with the teams in Game 2. It was Hawaii that pulled away at the end, holding off all of LMU's late efforts, with Houston's 14th kill -- a booming lineshot -- evening the match a 1-1.

Hawaii's best friend in Game 3 was LMU's serving, with the Lions committing five service errors that helped keep the Wahine close early. The Wahine defense also kicked in at critical points, led by Lee and Hittle.

A kill by Cubi-Otineru sparked a 6-0 run that gave Hawaii control at 24-19.

Game 4 was a battle of attrition for two admittedly weary teams. After pulling to 19-15 in Game 4, the Lions had little left and the Wahine pulled away with an 11-2 run.

"We are a little tired," Hittle said. "But we needed to dig deep. They were a good team.

"A lot of it was getting into rhythm, almost an attitude, having the will to crush them. At the end, everything was clicking."

LMU had two big wins last week over WCC champ Santa Clara and St. Mary's.

"We had an emotional week, just like Hawaii did," Lions coach Steve Stratos said. "We know we let Game 2 slip away, but it was a great volleyball match.

"Tomorrow, we need to play hard and do what we do. The game is serve and pass. When we were serving well, we didn't allow them to be in sync."

And when the serving and passing was one, the Lions struggled, as did the Wahine. Hawaii just had more left at the end.

"This was not an easy win," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "We had to earn it. When you schedule a team like this, you think you want a tough game at this point of the season, but we're so tired right now. I was worried about our team, that we wouldn't have enough energy.

"But somehow they reached down, especially Aneli, who started off poorly and righted the ship."

Cubi-Otineru had one kill and was hitting -.133. She finished at .240, with seven kills and one error in 14 swings in Game 4.